A/N: Hey lovelies! This is And so It Shattered's remake Shatter. Tell me what you guys think! I really think that this is better than the first, but you be the judge :D
For my new readers: welcome and enjoy!
Not Beta'd!
*Note: this does not mark the beginning of the weekly updates. I just thought that I'd go ahead and get out the first chapter. Weekly updates will start soon though.
Disclaimer: Don't confuse yourself into think that I actually do own it, k?
OoOoO
It's a little known fact that Mikan Sakura is an adopted child, picked up from an old orphanage at the age of six by a kind old man that wanted a child with a cheerful disposition and a smile. It was even lesser known that the little girl had excellent hearing and knew how to sneak around very well – that she had overheard what kind of child the man was looking for while talking to the caretaker and that she also knew how to act. And act she did, because the moment that old man Sakura walked through the door, a little girl with shining hazel eyes and pigtails bounded up to him, a large smile on her face.
"Hi there!" she greeted sweetly. "Are you here to adopt someone? My name is Mikan! I'm six."
So maybe she was a little straight forward with her introduction, but in the end it worked out perfectly as the person in front of her bent down to her level and gave a kind smile.
This was what he was searching for.
"Is that so?" he asked her softly and Mikan nodded her head up and down, pigtails swinging with the motion.
"Yup!"
"Well then, Mikan-chan. You're right: I am here to adopt somebody. Now tell me… how would you like to be that child?"
"W-wait Sakura-san," the old caretaker interjected from behind with a wide-eyed look at the little girl. She was probably wondering where the silent and stoic girl had gone but Mikan didn't blame her. It had to be shocking to see such a drastic change when just minutes before she had been standing alone, frowning and glaring at anything that moved and even things that didn't. "Aren't you being a little bit too hasty? This child-"
"Is perfect," the old man finished for her and waved her off with the request for the adoption paperwork. There was a moment's hesitation, but eventually the caretaker nodded and walked off.
The old man mistook the triumphant spark in Mikan's eyes as surprise, the slight quirk of her lips as happiness at the prospect of having a family and not one of amusement that she was able to manipulate him so easily.
"So, Mikan-chan, would you like to come home with me?"
With a blinding smile she nodded her head again.
"I would love that mister!"
And so the story begins.
Chapter 1
[He was looking for a little girl with a large smile and friendly personality. According to the old man, she didn't have to be "very smart, just sweet" and he was hoping for a child around the age of six. That was perfect. Because Mikan had just turned six herself.
OoO
She was in her new home now and Mikan was practicing various expressions in front of the mirror: smiles, pouts, and tears on-command. Mikan wasn't used to making such faces just yet.
"Mikan-chan!" a voice called from just outside her door and the child jumped in surprise. "Dinner is ready. Have you finished unpacking?"
"A-ah! Yes Ouji-san! I'll be out in a minute!" she replied loudly and trotted to the door, opening it with a large smile.
The old man who had just adopted her stood behind it and smiled widely at her.
"How do you like your new home, Mikan-chan?" he asked nicely.
Mikan smiled blindingly.
"I love it!"
"Good. Now, let's eat."
"Okay!"
Ah. How easy it was to manipulate a person…]
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8:20 a.m.
Mikan sat up and hit the off button on her alarm clock before it could even start ringing, the red glowing numbers telling the drowsy fifteen-year-old that she had ten minutes before class began.
"Oh no. It looks like I'll be late again..." she drawled with a lazy smirk, uncaring as she paused to yawn and climbed out from her warm cocoon of blankets and off of her bed. Her bare feet touched a lush carpeted floor and she slowly began making her way to her bathroom.
"I had that dream again. Or should I call it a memory?" she murmured to herself and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes as she slid open the door to her bathroom and carpet changed to tile. "That's the third time this week. An omen perhaps...?"
Mikan stopped in front of the marble bathroom counter and inspected herself and pushed the previous subject from her head so that she could concentrate on the current matter at hand.
"Tch," she murmured in displeasure, staring at her reflection in the mirror. The girl looking back at her had rings under her eyes, a tangled mess of hair and an almost completely blank expression. Mikan's creamy pale skin was smooth as ever but her eyes lacked their usual sparkle, instead replaced by cold and calculating, uncaring orbs - her lips were turned down in a frown. Mikan looked nothing like the cheerful sunny girl that the majority of Gakuen Alice had come to know.
This was more like the real her.
Mikan would have preferred to simply skip school that day and leave it at that or go to class in the afternoon, but little-miss-sunshine didn't miss class without a good reason and at the moment she could think of none. And not having an excuse would not work: appearances had to be kept. Appearances would be kept.
She gave her reflection another long stare.
"This," she told herself finally, "will most certainly not do."
With skilled fingers she ran her fingers through her hair, unknotting the long auburn locks before running over them with a brush and pulling it up into a ponytail whose end brushed at her hips. Next she dabbed concealer under her eyes, making the dull hazel look slightly more alive as the dark bruises disappeared. Her winter high school uniform came on next and Mikan was almost ready but not quite.
"And now for the finishing touch…" she whispered to herself.
Frowning lips twitched upward and dark hazel eyes gained light and sparkled in the fluorescent light. The mask had been put on and Mikan smiled sweetly.
"I'm ready!" she chirped.
OoOoO
8:35 a.m.
"Sorry I'm late!"
Mikan's apologetic cry was heard all throughout class B and every head in the room turned to look at the girl with varying expressions: some of amusement or exasperation, most of annoyance or distaste.
'Jerks,' Mikan thought with an internal scowl.
"My alarm clock didn't go off this morning and-" she began to babble but was cut off by a low growl.
"Silence, Sakura-san," Jinno sneered at her and Mikan stopped talking immediately. "Late again I see. How… predictable of you."
Piggish eyes narrowed behind spectacles and he slowly began circling her, tapping his Alice conductor against his leg as he did so. The frog on his shoulder croaked loudly and Mikan flinched at the sound. The rest of the class was completely silent.
'Wow guys,' came her sarcastic thoughts, 'Thanks for defending me!'
He was passing judgment, Mikan knew – trying to decide how much detention to give her for being tardy again. Jinno stopped after a moment and Mikan looked down at the ground nervously.
She was such a good little actress.
The tenth grader wondered vaguely what they would all think if they knew that instead of shame, what she was really feeling was the urge to tear someone's head off. They would probably be shocked.
"Seven days."
Mikan's head snapped up in disbelief.
Part of it was real.
'Are you freaking kidding me?'
"W-what?" she stuttered.
"I said that you have seven days of detention. Is there something wrong with that, Sakura-san?" Jinno asked lowly, eyes narrowed in a glare.
'Hell yeah there is!"
Her hands twitched into fists and with control only obtained by years of practice, Mikan did not fight back and a resigned look passed over her face as she shook her head.
"No, sir," she whispered.
"Good. Now go to your seat, girl."
'Jerk.'
"Yes, sir."
The day had begun much the same as every day before.
'I hate this place,' she thought with a slight frown.
Mikan smiled at Hotaru as she passed by her seat. She didn't smile back.
'Predictable.' Mikan thought with annoyance before she blinked, seeing a booted foot shoot out of the aisle just as she lifted her foot to walk past. 'Ah… time to fall, I guess. A clumsy fool would after all...'
"Oomph!" her breath rushed out all at once as she hit the floor and hazel eyes narrowed as they followed the leg upward to see it attached to a smirking Sumeri Shouda.
"A little unsteady on your feet, aren't you?" the green haired girl mocked, grinning.
'I saw that a mile away, idiot. How is tripping someone who let you trip them an accomplishment?' Mikan sneered internally.
On the outside: "Haha, I'm clumsy, ne?"
Permy just snorted and looked away.
"What an idiot," someone whispered with a snicker.
"Shh! She might hear you!" another whispered back.
"So?"
Mikan just kept walking and five second later she slid into her seat by a sleeping Natsume Hyuuga, a manga blocking the light from his eyes. Her heart fluttered slightly but Mikan immediately squashed the sensation. She narrowed her eyes slightly in disgust before greeting him.
"Good morning, Natsume!"
"Leave me alone, stupid girl," was his grumbled reply. "You're annoying."
"A-ah. Okay. Yeah. I am pretty annoying, aren't I?"
Natsume didn't deign her with a response and she dismissed the uncomfortable twist of her stomach at his blatant rejection on the lack of breakfast. Blocked as his vision was, Natsume didn't see her smile dim slightly and her eyes dull, if only a little, as some of her true self showed.
'Rude as always I see.' Mikan mused. 'Just because he's the most handsome guy in school – er, according to everyone else I mean - he thinks that he can do whatever he wants. Why do I put up with him again? Oh. Wait, I know why: because that's what an idiot would do. Make friends with the biggest ass in school.'
With a small sigh, she took out her notebook from her desk along with a mechanical pencil and began scribbling down chemistry notes that eventually turned into childish doodles, because that's what an "idiot with the intention span of a brain-dead squirrel" (as Hotaru liked to called her) would do.
'Hotaru… I hate her too. She rude and condescending and abusive – she blackmails people and hits me with that damned Baka Gun and makes me pay ridiculous fees for the stupidest of reasons.'
Hazel eyes flickered over to a blond that was currently petting a small white rabbit with a smile on his face.
'Out of the three, Ruka would have to be the best, but he's still too dense for my tastes – too… innocent. And the rest of this damn school? Are they even worth mentioning? They're assholes and jerks, the lot of them. None of them are worth my time and energy yet I have to deal with them on a day-to-day basis just so that I can keep appearances up. But I will deal with it, because until I reach eighteen or become able to live on my own somehow… Ouji-san can send me back to that terrible orphanage. And if he wants a nice girl who smiles a lot and is always kind, that's what he will get. If he knew the real me I would get sent back in-'
Mikan never got the chance to finish her thought as she sensed a projectile aimed straight for her head, the air whistling faintly as it passed through. She didn't dodge the roll of papers held in Jinno's hand and a loud smack echoed through the room.
"Itai!" she cried, holding her head and looking up to her teacher with tears pricking the corners of her eyes.
"Pay attention Sakura-san!" he snapped at her and Mikan bit her lip.
'Kami, what I would give to strangle that man to death…' she thought darkly.
"I am!"
"Oh really? Then tell me: what is the chemical formula for Copper(II) Nitrate and how do you make it? Tell me the chemical change that occurs while you're at it."
'The formula is Cu(NO3)2 and it forms when copper metal is treated with N2O4:[1]
Cu + 2 N2O4 Cu(NO3)2 + 2 NO,' Mikan's brain immediately supplied.
He obviously did not expect her to be able to answer the question if his sneer was anything to judge by and Mikan almost gave him the correct answer just to surprise him. Almost.
"Ah…" she mumbled. "Well… uh…."
"Hah. I knew that you weren't listening. Three days more detention, Sakura-san."
"But sensei-!" Mikan began to protest.
"No buts!" he snapped. "First you are tardy, then you don't pay attention, and now you dare defy me? Leave. Now."
"B-but-"
"That was not a request, you little fool. That was an order. Leave my classroom this instant. Do not worry. Your presence will not be missed."
'That bastard!'
"That's not true!" she protested.
Mikan looked around to see no one coming to her defense. They simply watched in silence. Natsume hadn't even bothered to see what was going on and Hotaru tinkered with a new invention. Ruka had his rabbit.
'I don't believe it. I may hate them, but after everything I did for them… they abandon me?'
Mikan stood still, feet glued to where she was standing. Shaking. Trying with all of her might to keep from snapping. She looked up, a smile pasted on her face.
"Hotaru, Natsume, and Ruka-pyon don't want me to go. They're my friends." Mikan insisted. "Right?" She looked to the three again with pleading eyes.
All of them were ignoring her still.
'No way…'
Jinno laughed as he watched Mikan shake in what he thought was suppressed tears but was really anger. She was so mad. So, so angry and betrayed and…
'Screw this. Screw being a good kid. Let Ouji-san send me back. I'm not dealing with this any longer. Day after day, week after week, year after year I put up with this kind of crap and worse.'
"No more," Mikan whispered so softly that she was not heard.
"See Sakura-san?" The teacher jeered, "No one wants you. Not even your friends! So-"
"Shut the hell up you disgusting, slimy, pathetic excuse of a human being! If I hear any more of your damn yammering I think that my ears will start to bleed," Mikan snapped and pinned her teacher with a glare.
All previous shaking was gone and instead of the clumsy, stupid looking girl that had stood before Jinno moments before there was a confident, cold, and graceful girl with intelligent but cruel eyes. He watched in shock as Mikan flipped her hair over her shoulder and placed a hand on her hip as she stared him down.
Jinno flinched as his muddy brown eyes met her flashing hazel. He felt cold all over like he was frozen in ice. Fear. It was an emotion that he hadn't felt in years and even then, not so strong as the fear he was currently experiencing because he knew that those were the eyes of someone who would cripple him without a second thought or regret. But then he remembered just whom he was talking to and snapped out of it.
"What was that Sakura-san?" he roared.
"I said," Mikan told him icily, "Shut. The. Hell. Up."
She laughed at his disbelieving expression.
"What?" she asked. Her voice was ice and steel. "You didn't believe that Mikan Sakura would defy you? That she would treat you with the same malice that you give to her? Think again, fool."
Mikan's dark laugh caused some of the students to shiver. She had caught her friends' attention now.
Jinno roared in anger and his arm blurred as he lifted the Alice conductor and shot a large, powerful bolt of lightning straight at Mikan's unmoving form but before it could get within a foot of her, the electricity vanished. Mikan smirked coolly and lifted a hand up to chest level, pointing her index finger at the teacher.
"Tut tut, Jinno-sensei. Now that's not the proper way to treat your students…" she shook her head mockingly. "I should teach you a little lesson!"
And with that, the teen returned the lighting tenfold, hitting Jinno square in the chest and causing his body to fly back into the blackboard. The slate cracked upon impact and shards of black stone clinked to the floor as the teachers body slumped against the wall. Energy crackled around his body and Mikan giggled softly, looking at her classmates' wide-eyed expressions.
They were all frozen in horror except for one and Mikan nodded towards the person before searching for sky blue, amethyst, and crimson. She glared at each of her three "friends" long and hard, daring them to stop her. They didn't and just watched in stunned silence and Mikan began walking to one of the large windows in the classroom.
A quick punch rid Mikan of the glass barrier between herself and sweet freedom and she put one foot on the windowsill in preparation to make the three-story drop to the ground.
"Seven minutes."
No one moved.
"Seven minutes and Jinno will die so if you don't want that then I would suggest getting him medical attention now. I don't really care myself so do whatever you want, okay?" Mikan smirked as she saw the teens before her slowly begin to regain brain function as the ramifications of Mikan's words finally sunk in.
"Well…" she said slowly, casually, as if she hadn't just near murdered her teacher, "I'll be going now. Oh, and by the way. Hotaru? Ruka? Natsume? I hate you all."
"Ja ne," she clipped.
And Mikan jumped.
OoOoO
A/N: And so the first chapter is over. Tell me what you guys think, okay? Review!
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